Pre-E3 2009: DJ Hero Impressions

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At Activision's pre-E3 event, one game in particular blew all the IGN editors away.

By Daemon Hatfield

To the layman, exactly what a DJ does is a bit of a mystery. You know they mix songs together and scratch records back and forth, but just what goes on up in that DJ booth? Activision's DJ Hero is coming to enlighten the masses, giving them the power to mix, cut, and scratch along with some of the hottest mash-ups this side of a Too Many DJs release. Just as Rock Band and Guitar Hero have become house party staples, DJ Hero might see a new wave of amateur mixmeisters rocking their friends' gatherings. IGN received a demonstration of the music game in action at Activision's pre-E3 event, and all editors in attendance were blown away by what we saw and heard. Some of us may be getting tired of music games, but DJ Hero stands poised to reinvigorate us.

DJ Hero is being cooked up by FreestyleGames, the team behind another dance music-related project: 2006's B-Boy on PSP. Some members of the team are DJs themselves, and from chatting with them FreeStyle seems to have a great appreciation for DJ culture and dance music. We've already written a bit about how DJ Hero works. Here, we'll focus a bit more on why we like it so much.

To begin with, the game sounds phenomenal. Setting it apart from all music games to date, most of what you hear in DJ Hero will be original mixes. Sure, you may have heard Gwen Stefani's "Holla Back Girl" and Rick James' "Give It to Me" before – but you probably haven't heard these two tracks mashed together with new beats and scratches poured over the top. Over 100 songs have been licensed and glued together in different combinations to create 80 unique mixes unavailable anywhere else. Everything we've heard so far is hot. These tracks are good enough to stand on their own. In fact, we asked FreeStyle if they plan on releasing the soundtrack but there apparently aren't any schemes at this time. It's a shame if it doesn't happen, because DJ Hero features some of the freshest mash-ups we've heard in a long time. The tracks revealed so far are:

Benni Benassi "Satisfaction" vs. Black Eyed Peas "Boom Boom Pow"

Gwen Stefani "Hollaback Girl" vs. Rick James "Give it to Me"

Gorillaz' "Feel Good Inc." vs. Marvin Gaye's "I Heard It Through the Grapevine"

We also know songs by Beastie Boys, Beck, Blondie, Billy Squire, 50 Cent, Justice, Marvin Gaye, and N.E.R.D. will be included. It was just announced today that Jay-Z and Eminem will be involved in the Special Edition of DJ Hero. Jay-Z will contribute the songs "Izzo (H.O.V.A.)" and "Dirt Off Your Shoulder", but Eminem doesn't want to reveal his cards, yet.

At least three superstar DJs will appear in the game: DJ Shadow, DJ AM, and Z-Trip. Not only will they be lending their likeness, but each is creating mixes for players to rock. Activision has also confirmed that DJ Shadow's good buddy Cut Chemist is contributing mixes, but it is unclear at this time whether or not he will appear in the game. Shadow, Z-Trip, and Cut Chemist are all huge names in the scratch community and are highly respected turntablists. DJ AM is more of a club DJ, and notably was engaged to Nicole Richie.

The turntable and mixer peripheral may be intimidating at first. It can be arranged for the left- or right-handed, but one hand will work the cross-fader while the other has to both scratch and press the three buttons on the record face. Seems like a lot to ask, right? Activision wants the game to be accessible to everyone, though, and assures us that DJ Hero will be friendly to all on its lower difficulty settings. In one example, when it's time to scratch players can move the record in any way they please on easy or medium settings. On more advanced difficulties, however, living room DJs will have to follow a specific pattern of onscreen arrows pointing up and down in order to pull off the scratch. For instance, you may have to move the record forward-forward-back along with the arrows. It may seem like eons ago, but there was definitely a learning curve the first time we all picked up Guitar Hero's plastic controller. We have a hunch DJ Hero will be a similar experience, and as people spend time with the peripheral they'll become more comfortable with it.